Lord Baelish arrives at Renly's camp just before he faces off against Stannis. Daenerys and her company are welcomed into the city of Qarth. Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie find themselves impriso... Read allLord Baelish arrives at Renly's camp just before he faces off against Stannis. Daenerys and her company are welcomed into the city of Qarth. Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie find themselves imprisoned at Harrenhal.Lord Baelish arrives at Renly's camp just before he faces off against Stannis. Daenerys and her company are welcomed into the city of Qarth. Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie find themselves imprisoned at Harrenhal.
- Melisandre
- (as Carice Van Houten)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe episode won an Emmy Award for outstanding art direction for a single-camera series.
- GoofsWhen Talisa amputates the soldier's foot, she claims it is because the 'rot' has set in. However, the battle had only happened the night before, not leaving enough time for putrefaction.
- Quotes
[at Joffrey's command, Meryn Trant has beaten Sansa and torn her clothes, and he is about to continue beating her. Tyrion intervenes]
Tyrion Lannister: What kind of knight beats a helpless girl?
Meryn Trant: The kind who serves his king, Imp!
Bronn: Careful now. We don't want to get blood all over your pretty white cloak.
Tyrion Lannister: Someone get the girl something to cover herself with.
[Sandor Clegane gives Sansa his cloak]
Tyrion Lannister: [to Joffrey] She's to be your queen! Have you no regard for her honor?
Joffrey Baratheon: I'm punishing her.
Tyrion Lannister: For what crimes? She's not fighting her brother's battle, you halfwit.
Joffrey Baratheon: You can't talk to me like that. The king can do as he likes!
Tyrion Lannister: The Mad King did as he like. Has your uncle Jaime ever told you what happened to him?
Meryn Trant: No one threatens his grace in the presence of the Kingsguard!
Tyrion Lannister: I'm not threatening the king, Ser, I'm educating my nephew.
[Tyrion speaks to Bronn]
Tyrion Lannister: Bronn, the next time the Ser Meryn speaks, kill him.
[Tyrion turns to Ser Meryn]
Tyrion Lannister: THAT was a threat. See the difference?
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Controversial Game of Thrones Moments (2017)
And let's start with talking about that scene in particular. It involves sexual humiliation and violence that left me awestruck while also questioning its necessity. A scene like that never occurred in the original novels and I believe the series would've also been better off without it. Not only because it's utterly unappealing to watch, but also because I just don't buy Joffrey being that evil. It's not normal and we've already had his cruelty depicted numerous times before, so why include it? If I'd like to see a pornographic actress (she is one, look it up) have her derrière beaten with a belt, there are other movies to watch. Aside from that, Jack Gleeson once again impressed me with his acting qualities.
Later on, there's another very sexually explicit moment in "Garden of Bones". It's a disturbing, puzzling, and jaw-dropping cliffhanger as unexpected as it gets. And while this one was in the source material as well, I still don't like it. At first I reckoned this sentiment to be utter confusion about what just happened and so I could prevent writing an overhastily critical review, I decided to watch episode five right afterwards. Yet, it turns out that I still don't like it and what happened in the next episode was actually the most disappointing moment of the whole series yet – specifics on that in my review for "The Ghost of Harrenhal". I'm aware that quite a lot of people seemed to love that scene, but I've watched it twice and my personal conclusion is that it's a form of fantasy Game of Thrones didn't need at all. I didn't have any problems with White Walkers or dragons, but what happened here took me out of the story completely and just didn't feel right.
Thankfully, the other story parts of this episode were really good and almost made me forget about the aforementioned two. Best of all, the introduction of Qarth: a walled oasis in the middle of the desert, entitled "the greatest city that ever was or will be". The opening of its gates was one of the Game of Thrones' most rememberable moments and revealed a masterpiece of its set designers. The curious folk we're making acquaintance with there is different from everything else in the series, and a sub-plot that hopefully receives its deserved attention in the next couple of episodes. The second new location, Harrenhal, is a far uglier place that serves the sole purpose of capturing, torturing and eventually killing Lannister prisoners. A process that could've been made more entertaining to watch, but I'll stop complaining for once and will say that I enjoyed it a lot. Maisie Williams gives a fantastic turn while a surprise guest voluntarily visits this location.
As always, there's also Peter Dinklage, the imp responsible for keeping up HBO's ratings, who amazes with his enormous acting qualities. Receiving far less praise as she should is Natalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell, making her character wonderfully exciting to watch while having a conversation with Aidan Gillen's Peter Baelish – a stand-out moment in the episode's screenplay.
That makes for an episode that disappointed me at times, but was also rememberable and enthralling on other occasions. Minor flaws just can't curb my amazement for this series.
- stillworkingfortheknife
- Aug 16, 2013
Details
- Runtime51 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1